It's a baby diamondback, about eleven inches long. I just saw it lying along the baseboard next to the back door. At first I thought that it was one of my kid's toy snakes (she has a lot of them) and bent down to pick it up. When it moved, I think my heart skipped a couple of beats.
I was able to capture it alive and put it in my daughter's bug vault. It's late, so I'll call animal control in the morning.
Man, this thing is mean! Whenever I put my finger up to the glass, it strikes repeatedly. It vibrates its tail in contempt, even though it's too young to actually have a rattle. It tracks my every movement with a wary hatred that is deeply disturbing, despite its diminutive size. It coils in the corner, waiting for me to make an appearance near its chamber window so it can strike suddenly.
We've named it "bin Laden"

Man, this thing is mean! Whenever I put my finger up to the glass, it strikes repeatedly. It vibrates its tail in contempt, even though it's too young to actually have a rattle. It tracks my every movement with a wary hatred that is deeply disturbing, despite its diminutive size. It coils in the corner, waiting for me to make an appearance near its chamber window so it can strike suddenly.
We've named it "bin Laden"

Ange, I was only joking in my post, guess I should have added a wink. I really love animals of all kinds and wold not want to see harm come to them.
And do you realize how friggen funny the last line of your post is!?!
------------------"How can I heal, when I can't feel time?"
Leonard from Memento

You do realize that naming it Bin Laden is a great injustice to the snake. The rattler has enough balls to confront you face-to-face. To name him Bin Laden, he would have had to send in all his garden snake buddies to jump you while his cowardly ass ran off with your eggs. In light of his willingness to deal with you directly and not back down, I move to have his name changed to Tyson!

Well I was going to say "eat him" but since he's a baby, forget it.
I tend to prefer snakes over other things such as large spiders and those giant centipedes. I will avoid venomous snakes but all others I catch with joy. The problem is I have two cats and they love snake meat so everytime I get one, Oscar or Gizmo eat them. But they eat anything else that gets in their paths too such as squirrels, rabbits, mice, rats, lizards, etc.
The reason I hate spiders is due to being bitten by a black widow in the attic one day trying to get down Christmas decorations. Nothing is felt initially, but in about an hour, my hand swelled up and hurt like hell. Had to go to the doctor the next day and spend money that could have been spent on CD's or beer. It was something like $120 which wasn't enough to meet my deductable either.
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The little rattlers are often the most dangerous because they haven't learned yet how to completely control the amount of venom they release. Snakes control how much venom they release with each bite and can even deliver "dry" bites if they wish (so can black widow spiders) but the little ones are just too excitable and often pump their whole venom into one bite. A big one will have a lot more venom but will not usually use all of it on a defensive bite (the snake knows that you are not food.)
While I am certainly not against killing rattlers when they become too numerous, or if one consistently hangs out too close to your house, it is important to remember that they have a very, very important job of keeping rodent populations under control. Next time you see a rattler, think of it as an innoculation against bubonic plague and hanta virus. The last one is certainly more scary than a rattlesnake bite.
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Why not drive it out into the country (or desert) and release it? I grew up in Florida, and one either had rats or snakes. If you killed the snakes the rats ruled.
Besides -- I recommend one try this on non-poisonous varieties - the tongue tickles when it checks you out.

Effigious humor aside (I got it, and it was humorous, John. How clever of you to "circumvent" the guidelines so adroitly! ), I agree with the sentiments that the rattlesnake has its place in nature. Rodents here can be pretty bad at times. The trouble is that I already live on the edge of civilization, so I'd have to drive only to the end of my street to reach the country!
The main problem is that there's a flood plain just behind my house. It makes for a great view from my back yard, since we're on a pretty big hill and there's no development back there. But this undeveloped area is where critters of all types make their home. During the Annual Texas Drought, the flood plain is where they all live. But recently, we've had several inches of rain (unseasonably early, I might add), so now these critters are desperately seeking higher ground. I have no problem with re-introducing Li'l Osama back into the wild, but I don't think that would solve my problem until thing dry out a bit. So, Animal Control it is.
In the mean time, it sure is fun to watch the little guy try to strike at me through the glass.
As for his brothers and sisters, I just did a thorough search of the "perimeter" and didn't find anything. I just hope they're not planning any suicide missions.[Edited last by BrianW on September 15, 2001 at 04:04 PM]

The reason I hate spiders is due to being bitten by a black widow in the attic one day trying to get down Christmas decorations. Nothing is felt initially, but in about an hour, my hand swelled up and hurt like hell. Had to go to the doctor the next day and spend money that could have been spent on CD's or beer. It was something like $120 which wasn't enough to meet my deductable either.

Better without a couple CD's than DEAD... You were bitten by the most poisonous spider in the world... think about it..
Heh, a person renting my condo i have in the states comes from texas, and he said down there, he'd never dream of leaving the patio door open to a grass field, coz you never know what the heck might crawl in there...
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The little rattlers are often the most dangerous because they haven't learned yet how to completely control the amount of venom they release.

Hmmm...similar to puppies in some way...BAD PUPPY!!! NO PUPPY! BAD PUPPY!
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Upon further introspection, I think that using the name "bin Laden" on a snake does our boy Osama too much of an honor. Now if you had some kind of giant tubeworm sprouting out of your basement floor...
EDIT: For some reason, I was just thinking how funny it would be for President Bush to say on TV, in that sincere and honest way he has: "Mister bin Laden? You are now, officially...my bitch."
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Andrew Hamm's new album Strange Education is available now![Edited last by Andrew 'Ange Hamm' Hamm on September 16, 2001 at 07:19 PM]

There was a spider in the house, big bastard with white spots. I put him outside and 2 days later, he was in the house again. My stupid brother named the damn thing and its been wandering around ever since.
Got up this morning and saw him scamper across my room.
Named it Boris.
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Meet Itsy:
and Bitsy:
They're both alot bigger now and oh soooo cute! I'm going to put them into 10 gallons soon, they're in 5 gallons now after living in critter cages for a bit. When they were tiny, they were living in 16oz Betty Crocker food storage bowls. I bet Betty Crocker had no idea!!!!
Jay
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Brian, take it on over to Taylor. They can use it during there "Round UP" I have been lucky and not had any of the little "guests". When I was living with my parents, I did get stung a couple of times from scorpions. Not good. And, you can't kill the little buggers.
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Jeff Blair
AIM blairj2
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Jeff Blair
Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.